Sunday Trinity 6

Opening Verse of Scripture Colossians 2:6

Continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

Merciful God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as pass our understanding: pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Creator God, you made us all in your image: may we discern you in all that we see, and serve you in all that we do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading Hosea 1:2-10

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ‘Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.’ So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, ‘Name him Jezreel; for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.’ She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them. But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by war, or by horses, or by horsemen.’

When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said, ‘Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God.’ Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’, it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’   NRSV

Second Reading Colossians Chapter 2:6-19 

Brothers and sisters, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God. NRSV

Gospel Reading Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: 

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins,

for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.’

And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’ NRSV

Post Communion Prayer

God of our pilgrimage, you have led us to the living water: refresh and sustain us as we go forward on our journey, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. CW

Commentary 

The Lord's Prayer is the best-known prayer of Christians of every tradition, however it does not say anything which could not be prayed by Jews or Muslims alike. Indeed there is nothing in it which is exclusively Christian, it is from Jewish roots because Christianity as we know it never came about until after Jesus died. I can completely understand why Jews would not wish to use it because it comes from our New Testament, which by its very name suggests that something has occurred in Jesus which takes precedence over the Old. Yet we do well to see the prayer in the context of the teachings of Jesus the Jew who was referred to by his disciples not as a carpenter but a rabbi.

We know that at the time it was customary for Jews to pray at certain times during the day and Jewish rabbis would encourage their disciples in how to pray. The disciples of Jesus want him to teach them what prayers to say, just as John the Baptist had taught his disciples. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus took the prayers of his time and he condensed the significant Jewish themes into this prayer which is now said every Sunday by millions of Christians around the world. It is the most important prayer which we all share, direct from the lips of Jesus himself and one which he commands his disciples to recite in the same way that faithful Jews still today recite given prayers. In Matthew’s Gospel we are told that Jesus gave the prayer more as a type of prayer which complies with the instructions which he has given about prayer in general. In Luke the prayer is not just an example which reinforces the teaching of Jesus, it is also a specific prayer which must be prayed by his followers as handed down by Jesus. 

Jesus would have taught the prayer in Aramaic and I am sure it would have had a rhythm which would have made it memorable and capable of being taught and passed on. I am sure I have said many times how I feel we have scored an own goal by ’modernising’ the Lord’s Prayer in different forms and confusing the wording making it more difficult to pass on. I suspect that nearly 100% of funerals locally where the Lord’s Prayer is frequently requested by people with sometimes even only little faith, they specifically ask for The Lord’s Prayer in the traditional form. It is good to consider The Lord’s Prayer as both a set prayer to be used as passed to us by Jesus and also as a template of the manner of our prayers and the things which we should be saying to God.

As I have said there is nothing very unique about the Lord’s Prayer that you would not find in Jewish scripture or prayers of the time. However Jesus does change the emphasis quite dramatically. At the very outset Jesus addresses God as Father. There is quite a lot of controversy over what exactly lies behind the word ‘Father.’ I remember some preachers over the years who have wrongly suggested that Jesus was encouraging a very childish and friendly expression more akin to ‘Daddy.’ The word ‘abba’ in Aramaic means Father (Greek - Pater) and that is how we should understand the word, it is a term of affection but it should not be reduced to baby talk. Much has been made about how original it was for Jesus to encourage his disciples to call God Father. This is true to some extent but it is important to remember that Jesus was speaking within a Jewish context and Jews would know prayers and scriptures in which God is spoken of as Father. In the Dead Sea Scrolls we read the following intimate prayer,

‘For my father did not know me and my mother abandoned me to you. Because you are a father to all the sons of your youth. You rejoice in them and like her who loves her child and like a wet-nurse you take care of all your creatures on your lap’ (1QH 17,29-36)

The idea of God as Father has Old Testament roots. God instructed Nathan to tell David, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my son” (2 Samuel 7:14). In a prayer, Isaiah said,

But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Through Jeremiah, God said to Israel, “You shall call me “My Father,” and shall not turn away from following me” (Jeremiah 3:19) and “for I am a father to Israel” (Jeremiah 31:9). Malachi said, “Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10). 

We won’t go into all the Jewish texts but suffice to say that the Amidah or Standing Prayer which Jews still pray daily addresses God as Father. What we can say is that it is only following the teaching of Jesus that ’Father’ became the go to word for an intimate expression to God in prayer. God was close to Jesus and this is shown clearly by his choice of this word. Moreover Jesus wants this level of intimacy to be shared by us all. A relationship so personal that we can call the Creator of the universe 'Father'. God is somebody we can approach as we go to a human parent and share the good times and the bad, the success as well as the failure, the joys and sorrows. As 'Father', God is concerned for the needs of his children.   Charles Royden 

Meditation

I cannot say OUR, if my religion has no room for others and their needs.

I cannot say FATHER, if I do not demonstrate this relationship in my daily living.

I cannot say WHO ARE IN HEAVEN, if all my interest and pursuits are in earthly things.

I cannot say HALLOWED BE THY NAME, if I, who am called by His name, am not holy.

I cannot say, THY KINGDOM COME, if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty and accept the

righteous reign of God.

I cannot say THY WILL BE DONE, if I am unwilling or resentful of having it in my life.

I cannot say ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, unless I am truly ready to give myself to His service here

and now.

I cannot say GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, without expending honest effort for it or by ignoring

the genuine needs of my fellow man.

I cannot say FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST

US, if I continue to harbour a grudge against anyone.

I cannot say LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, if I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I

am likely to be tempted.

I cannot say DELIVER US FROM EVIL, if I am not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon

of Word and prayer.

I cannot say THINE IS THE KINGDOM, if I do not give the King the disciplined obedience of a loyal

subject.

I cannot say THINE IS THE POWER, if I fear what my neighbours or friends may say or do.

I cannot say THINE IS THE GLORY, if I am seeking my own glory and recognition first.

I cannot say FOREVER, if I am too anxious about each day's affairs.

I cannot say AMEN, unless I honestly say, "Cost what it may, this is my prayer

The Gospel reading tells us that the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. At one level this is a very simple request. At another it is probably one of the most profound requests the disciples could make. And they could hardly have been expecting the first word with which Jesus then starts His instruction. In Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer Jesus simply starts with the word ‘Father’ translated from the Aramaic word ‘Abba’. This is a new and completely different way to pray. Up until now no one had called God ‘Father’. It implied an intimacy and relationship with God which had simply not been expressed before. Indeed, Hebrew was the normal language used for Jewish prayer. The German theologian Joachim Jeremias wrote, ‘Abba expresses the heart of Jesus’ relationship with to God. He spoke as a child to its father: confidently and securely, and yet at the same time reverently and obediently. That is the relationship Jesus invites us all to have with His Father, one of confidence and security as we come before Him in our prayers and all we do in obedience and reverence for the God who made us in His image.

Hymns

• O Lord my God
• Seek ye first
• What a friend we have in Jesus
• Christ be our light
• I heard the voice of Jesus say
• From all that dwell below the skies
• Go tell is on the mountain
• May the mind of Christ my Saviour
• Jesus, we thus obey
• It is God who holds the nations in the hollow of his hand

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

Grant us, O Lord, to seek first your Kingdom and your righteousness. Out of the abundance of your grace, grant us sufficient light and strength 

for our journey. Forgive what we have been, sanctify what we are and order what we shall be, in you and for you, now and for ever. Amen Mary Tileston, 1820 -1895

Watch, Lord, with those who wake or watch or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Jesus Christ; rest your weary ones; bless your dying ones; soothe your suffering ones; pity your afflicted ones; shield your joyous ones. And all for your love’s sake. Amen Compline collect

O Holy Spirit, come as the wind to forward our goings. Come as the dove to launch us heavenward. Come as the water to purify our spirits. Come as the cloud to abate our temptations. Come as the dew to revive our languor. Come as fire to purge our souls; for your truth and your name’s sake. Amen Christina Rossetti, 1830-1894

God, you have poured the Spirit of your Son into our hearts so that we may call you Father. Give us grace to devote our freedom to your service that we and all creation may be brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen. 

Lord Jesus, we give you our hands to do your work. We give you our feet to walk in your way. We give you our tongues to speak your word. We give you our hearts to love you, now and for ever. Amen. Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)

God our Father, you made each of us unique and unrepeatable. Inspire me to live in such a way that I respect others and am ready to learn from all who are part of my life this day. Amen.

Lord we remember before you all our brothers and sisters who are weighed down with suffering. Bless and guide us that your love may be reflected in our concern for the hungry, the oppressed and the unloved. Help us to acknowledge and grow in appreciation that all people are made in your image and likeness. Amen.

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our brothers ands sisters throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them by our hands this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love give peace and joy Amen.

Additional Resources

Commentary - Audacious Prayer

The theme of being confident before God as we pray is seen in the story of the Friend at Midnight. We read that because of the requestor’s boldness and persistence the man eventually gets up and meets the request for bread. Jesus has just told the disciples that they should ask for their daily bread. The word which is translated ‘boldness’ can have different meanings, as reflected in the various translations of the bible, many of which render it differently. One understanding of the word could be ‘shameless audacity’. This would seem to fit more closely with the understanding that Jesus has just communicated to the disciples. Just as a child can make audacious requests of their parents, seemingly without concern, perhaps Jesus is encouraging the disciples (and us) to be equally bold in our prayers and requests. In a way, all prayer is audacious. We are asking God to intervene in our world as if He might be unaware of what’s happening. The way that Jesus describes the audacious persistence of prayer is also seen in the exchange between Abraham and the Lord in our Old Testament reading. Abraham time and time again goes back to God as if testing His resolve. Would God spare the city of Sodom if fifty righteous people were found there? What about forty five, what about forty, thirty, twenty and then just ten? This bargaining posture may have seemed normal to those used to the bargaining ways between groups of wandering nomads but seems rather strange and audacious, even rude to our modern day western ways. But it does help to shake us from seeing prayer as a rather mundane and one way exchange where we lay out a constant stream of needs to God, as if reminding Him of some of the topics that require His attention. This is not the model that Jesus teaches either.

The disciples have seen Jesus pray many times before and have come to realise it is a central part of who He is and what He is doing. It’s not surprisingly then that they ask, ‘How do you do that?’, ‘Lord, teach us how to pray’. What He teaches is about bringing the mundane and the comic together as we ask for our daily bread, and for the coming of His Kingdom. He doesn’t talk about clearing our minds and having stillness of thought, or of adopting a particular posture. He talks about communicating with God from the middle of our lives, wherever we are. For the Jewish hearers Jesus’ words would have a familiar ring to them. One of the prayers used in synagogue liturgy is called the ‘Kaddish’. The Lord’s Prayer which Jesus teaches us has echoes of its words. ‘Exalted and sanctified (or Magnified and hallowed) is God’s great name in the world which He has created according to His will. And may He establish His Kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the House of Israel, speedily and soon, and say, Amen’. As with many of the words Jesus spoke, the words of the Lord’s Prayer would have a familiar ring to it, but shaped in a way to give them an entirely new meaning. In the teaching on prayer in Luke, Jesus’ example is both broad and deep. His disciples had already noticed that prayer is a fundamental part of who Jesus is and what He does. It’s not something which has to occur at specific times and occasions but seems to be more like an on-going conversation Jesus has with His Father. 

Our prayer too should be part and parcel of our everyday lives, part of who we are and what we are, not just something that happens on a Sunday in the words of the liturgy, as good as they are. As a model, Jesus sometimes took Himself off to pray, and other times prayed where He was, in and for the circumstances in which He found Himself. He didn’t use any special language. He wanted to be understood and to be able to express what He really meant and wanted. God does not look for special language or special posture from us. He wants us to be intimate with Him as our Father, whilst understanding that He is an awesome and creator God who is all powerful, all knowing and present in all things, which is why we pray to Him in the first place!

He expects the mundane, the audacious and the cosmic to be mixed together in our prayer. At one and the same time asking for the things that seem trivial and also the things which seem so huge we almost dare not to ask. Our Father in Heaven, Holy be your name, give us our bread, your Kingdom come… It’s a prayer of Holy acknowledgement of who God is and what He has done. It’s a prayer which asks for forgiveness for the times we have fallen short, together with a commitment to forgive those who may have done us wrong. It’s a prayer where we ask for God to protect us from getting into situation where we may be tempted, and to keep us safe when we do. In so doing it expresses our deep hope and confidence in God who cares for us and His world. God wants us to be faithful and audacious in our prayers to Him. We have a God who yearns to be in communication with His people. All we have to do is ask. As Jesus demonstrated, God speaks our language. Sam Cappleman

Commentary

After the sacrament of baptism, the Lord's Prayer is the best-known bond of unity among Christians of every tradition. The name Lord's Prayer was given because it was a prayer which Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him 'Teach us how to pray." Clearly there was something about the prayer of Jesus which made the disciples feel they were missing the mark, their prayers lacked the power and meaning Jesus' had. 

In Matthew Jesus gives the prayer as a type of prayer which complies with the instructions which he has given about prayer in general. In Luke however the prayer is not only an example which complies with his teaching, it is also a specific prayer which must be prayed by his followers. 

Our We have all heard the phrase 'I am a Christian but I don't go to church.' The word 'Our' is very poignant, it makes the Christian faith a shared experience, not an isolated one. You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and mean it and then be a private Christian. The following is a simple poem but it does have a strong message about the shared nature of Christianity

You cannot say the Lord's prayer, and even once say "I".

You cannot pray the Lord's prayer, and even once say "my".

Nor can you pray the Lord's prayer and not pray for another.

For to ask for "our" daily bread, you include your sister and brother!

All God's children are included in each and every plea.

From the beginning to the end of it, it does not once say "me".

Father Jesus must have amazed those around by addressing God as "Father". The Pharisees never used such a title to address God. We can be sure that not until Jesus does it become characteristic to speak to God as Father. God was close to Jesus and this is shown clearly by his choice of this word. Moreover Jesus wants this level of intimacy to be shared by us all. A relationship so personal that we can call the Creator of the universe 'Father'. God is somebody we can approach as we go to a human parent and share the good times and the bad, the success as well as the failure, the joys and sorrows. As 'Father', God is concerned for the needs of his children.

Hallowed be your name Hallowed means to treat as holy, to reverence, to be pure, sacred. There is an acknowledgement of the fact that God is 'worthy.' This is about the essential quality of God which is beyond our imagination. In calling God 'Holy' we acknowledge that God is 'other worldly' and that there is much about God which is above and beyond us: We cannot expect to place an infinite God into the container of our human finite minds. This is also a prayer for the mission of the church, we are seeking

that all people would reverence God.

Your kingdom come Jesus expresses our longing to have the kingdom fully now, not just a taste of it. Our deepest longing is to see the day when the triumphant, sovereign lordship of our loving God will no longer be a mere hope clung to desperately by faith, but a manifest reality in all human affairs. We all long to see the end of death and pain and suffering, this prayer seeks the time when all these things will come to an end. 

Give us each day our daily bread. We are half-way through the prayer before Jesus allows us to ask for anything for ourselves! This phrase reminds us of where our priorities must be. It reminds us of our daily dependence upon God and calls us to simplicity of life. As we pray these simple words we pray that we will live just one day at a time and we also acknowledge that all things come from God. (Deut 8:18, 1 Cor 4:7, James 1:17). True prayers are born of present trials and present needs. Bread, for today, is bread enough. As every day demands its bread, so every day demands its prayer. No amount of praying, done today, will suffice for tomorrow's praying. This part of the prayer is also about NEEDS not GREEDS. Jesus acknowledges that our physical needs must be met but it is not a prayer for luxuries. To pray for 'our daily bread' is to remind ourselves that in a wealthy society we should not be asking for more than that, anything else is a bonus! Indeed for many people daily bread itself would be a real luxury.

Forgive us our sins In this prayer we admit that we are sinners! By sinning we have incurred a moral and a spiritual debt to God who has authority over our lives. So we ask for forgiveness as a gift, for we can never earn or merit God's forgiveness. Some would say that we should be praying forgive me 'my' sins. There has been a tendency to become over excited about our individual sins: Of course the ones that we get really excited about are sexual sins and sins of morality. Jesus is not so focused on individual but rather corporate sin. It is actually harder to say forgive us our sins, since when we take shared responsibility for corporate sins it challenges us in a new way.

As we forgive those who sin against us Think about the things God has forgiven you for. Now with all that forgiven how can you not forgive someone who has sinned against you? Jesus does not suppose that God's forgiveness is contingent on our forgiving. Rather, he simply assumes that as we pray we will understand the need to forgive. Once our eyes are opened to the enormity of our offence against God, the injuries done to us appear by comparison to be trifling. If we exaggerate the offences of others then the chances are that we have a minimized our understanding of our own ! Forgiving others shows that we are living out the kingdom standards in our own lives now.

And lead us not into temptation Does God lead us into temptation? We can all be sure from personal experience that he does allow us to be tempted, to go through difficult circumstances. We are told in scripture that God will not allow us to be tested beyond what we can endure and that he will help us through it (1 Cor 10:13). Perhaps we could say that this prayer asks God to help us avoid sin, and that our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into sin of any kind. If we continue to say this prayer each day, then we will find it hard to live knowingly with sin each day. It is interesting that when people do things which they know to be wrong they frequently find a reason to avoid confronting their sin. They will perhaps leave their church which challenges such behaviour, sometimes finding fault in the church itself as an excuse. Our prayers will challenge us not to live a double life. Charles Royden

Meditation

Pray, and let God worry. Martin Luther, 16th century

Meditation

Jesus said

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Jesus was a carpenter and in the days before health and safety and protective glasses I am sure that there were many times when he suffered from having sawdust in his eye. So we can understand what he meant when he told his followers not to go worrying about specks of dirt in somebody else's eye when you had a plank of wood in your own. 

We can all judge others and criticise them, never seeing anything positive in them. We can even measure people by a high standard which we are unable to live up to ourselves. Jesus is right, we all need to learn to cut other people a bit more slack and remember the words of Mother Teresa said: “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”